Saturday, October 04, 2008

a little break

The one problem with starting a series is that you sometimes get stuck, or bored, or distracted. And then, the series becomes more of a hindrance than a help. Such was the case this past week with my bird collection. Nothing was flowing the way I wanted it to. I started and stopped, getting hung up on little details. But, in the midst of this miserable state of "stuck-ness," I found comfort in an old friend....my beads.

I have been collecting beads for over fifteen years, but my jewelry-making spurts have waxed and wained depending on my stage of life. High school brought the first bout of obsession. There was almost nothing better to me than a bead shop. I'd carefully choose the most interesting beads I could find and go home and create necklaces strung with hundreds of teeny seed beads. Then came the Sculpey clay phase. Simply buying beads was no longer good enough. I had to start making my own too. This jewelry-making craze continued for several years until somehow, one day, I must have grown tired of it. The beads got packed away in plastic storage bins and were relegated to the dreaded basement where they began a long and lonely stay, kept company only by other abandoned craft supplies and half-finished projects.

It wasn't until a year and a half ago that I once again started to give thought to those poor, forgotten beads. In preparing for my wedding, a thought came to mind. I would make handcrafted bracelets for each of my bridesmaids! The plastic bins were dusted off, newer and trendier beads were added to the collection, and I was suddenly back to my old ways!

Since then, I've given into spells of jewelry-making whenever the desire hits. I tend to forget about them when they are tucked away in the closet. But, whenever I do pull them back out, I always wonder why I waited so long to invite them back.

3 comments:

That's so funny that you did a post about beads because I just recently rediscovered my love of jewelry making too. I started making stuff again last month. And on friday I used a joanns giftcard and I got some really cool hand painted ceramic square pendants and some funky red beads. I'm very excited to create those necklaces. I was also trying to figure out a way to make a leaf shaped earring with seed beads and wire. I want to see some heather made jewelry on etsy! :)

The girly-girl side of me has yet to experience the joy of jewelry (I've never really been into it), but this entry poked at it a little. It has been a recent curiosity of that girly side. I just haven't let it fully explored this area. I would love to play dress-up with some jewelry-savvy gals and learn the ways of embelishing oneself. Anyone interested?